The Web portals, or marketplaces, through which uninsured consumers can shop for health plans aren't listing what providers are in-network and participating in the plans, although some link to outside sites hosted by plans.

Without such information more conveniently available, medical societies say it is difficult to know what doctors patients can see, if their doctor is on the plan they want to buy, or how narrow or robust provider networks are in certain plans.

However, states are slowly adding this information to their exchange websites, and health plans say this information is already available even if it isn't directly on exchange websites.

But currently, only a handful of the 15 states building their own marketplace or exchange websites have provider search tools -- including Colorado, Kentucky, and Washington state.

Most, including New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, simply link to insurers' websites, "which [are] not necessarily the easiest to go through," Moe Auster, vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs at the Medical Society of the State of New York, in Westbury, told MedPage Today in a phone interview.

The physician group said it is working with the state to include more consumer-friendly information on its site. In spite of the issue, New York's site has enrolled more than 100,000 people in the first few weeks.

The 36 websites run by the federal government have experienced even greater problems as consumers have reported widespread trouble trying to create accounts and shop for plans -- let alone viewing provider networks. It is unclear how the federally run exchanges are handling provider network information.

States are working on adding more user-friendly information. The Oregon exchange, for example, told MedPage Today it hopes to have a provider search function on its website later this week.

"How that information is provided varies from plan to plan, but they are continuing to look for ways to give consumers the information they need to make informed decisions," AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach told MedPage Today. "It isn't true that this information isn't available today."

The group expects exchange websites to improve and become more consumer friendly over time. "As these website are developed and new features are added, we expect more and more information to be available," Zirkelbach added.

Some of the onus in not having this information falls on health plans themselves and isn't entirely the fault of the exchanges or websites.

"We're hearing all kinds of complaints about specific insurance companies not providing physicians relative fee information or are not letting them know if they are part of an exchange plan or not," Auster said. "We've even heard reports about physicians being listed as participants in exchange networks that are actually not part of those exchange networks."

The American Medical Association is monitoring the situation, but understands the Department of Health and Human Services is working to update network directories, AMA President Ardis Dee Hoven, MD, said.

"Patients should always be able to trust that they have current and accurate information about which physicians are included in a health insurance network," she told MedPage Today in a statement.